Idlewild. Treasure Hernandez

all over. She’d used her affiliation a million times to get what she wanted, but not tonight. The frustration felt like a large hand choking her neck. She could feel tears welling up at the backs of her eyes.

      Donna didn’t know what to say next. She stepped closer to the door, her teeth chattering because she was so angry. She tried to dial the number again, but her hands were trembling too badly. She needed a hit, a pill, anything to take the fucking edge off. Now that she was out of the safe environment of rehab, all her desire for drugs was back. The cravings had returned the minute she walked into her parents’ condo. That was the reason she’d come out tonight, to fight the urges. Yeah, right. Who was she fooling? She’d come out to see the person she’d longed for the entire time she was gone.

      “What? You can’t hear!” the bouncer barked, moving his mountainous body toward her menacingly. “I said this ain’t no place for you to be standing around to make no damn calls! Get your ass to the back of the line, or get the hell out of here!”

      The bass in his voice startled Donna, but she wasn’t giving up. She bit her bottom lip, swallowed hard, and stepped up again.

      “I really, really need to see Tommy. If you just give him the message, you’ll see that he’ll let me inside. Please, please, it’s an emergency,” Donna pleaded, clasping her hands together like she was about to pray. It wasn’t in her nature to beg or plead. All her life she’d generally gotten what she wanted, even on the party scene. And if she didn’t get her way, she was used to resorting to tantrums to turn the tables. However, she figured the temper tantrums she usually threw or the rude way she spoke to those who stood in her way wasn’t going to work with this guy. She tried something different.

      “Pretty please,” she added for good measure.